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AEDB forwards eight green energy projects to World Bank

The Alternate Energy and Development Board (AEDB) has forwarded the concept notes of eight green energy projects to the World Bank to avail of financing under the Clean Technology Fund (CTF).

Arif Alauddin, former chief executive officer of AEDB, said that the board has forwarded eight projects to the Ministry of Environment, which should have been forwarded to the World Bank for approval.

Other departments and ministries have also been asked to forward the concept notes of any green energy, clean environment projects for which they are willing to avail of the financing under the CTF, he said.

He was not sure about the number of projects forwarded by other departments.

The World Bank has consented to support the government of Pakistan in its efforts to access the Clean Technologies Fund (CTF) of a total of $4.9 billion for developing countries, an official document revealed.

The CTF would provide developing countries with positive incentives to scale up the demonstration, deployment and transfer of technologies with a high potential for long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions savings. This would be a long-term concessional loan.

The investment plan will be prepared in two phases of $300 million each.

CTF resources could be used to leverage funds from Pakistan’s traditional donors, which could unlock the financial closure and commissioning of hundreds of megawatts of clean energy and contribute to address some of the capacity gaps over the short- and medium-term and provide a quick win, it said.

Two windows of financing envisaged by the CTF include public sector projects and private sector projects with a financial intermediary.

The investment plan includes the indicative technologies, low carbon actions, addressing the power sector, renewable energy, as well as increased efficiency in generation and transmission distribution. This will also help the country overcome the electricity crisis.

In transportation, in particular, model shifts to public transportation, improved fuel energy, fuel switching and large-scale adoption of the energy-efficient technologies and other demand management techniques in the industrial and residential building sectors.

The CTF fund is being provided to those developing countries with positive incentives to scale up the demonstration, deployment and transfer of technologies, which have a high potential for long-term greenhouse gas emissions whose presence in the atmosphere prevent heat to escape from earth and cause greenhouse effect, the document revealed.

The CTF investment plan for Pakistan may be tailored to the country’s needs and requirements for integration in the overall national development objectives.

The areas are likely to be included in the CTF investment plan for Pakistan included waste management, as this issue needs to be addressed, private sector to be looped in, to seek ideas on energy efficiency for industrial technologies, and industrial energy efficiency to be tackled by conducting energy audits on the pattern NPO is presently doing for several industries such as steel and fertilisers.